UPON the request of senior citizens themselves, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna announced plans to convert the birthday cakes of the city’s elderly citizens to birthday cash gifts instead.
Lacuna said that he and Vice Mayor Yul Servo are already working out the details for the amendment of an existing city ordinance that would support the planned conversion of birthday cakes to cash instead.
The lady mayor, who is also a doctor, said she heeded the requests coming from senior citizens themselves, most of whom she said already suffer from diabetes or high sugar so that usually, they no longer enjoy the cakes, even as consuming them is no longer healthy for them.
Lacuna said that during consultations with senior citizens, they have indicated their preference for cash gifts on their birthdays instead of cakes so that they will have the sole decision on what they really want for their birthday.
It was learned that currently, the city government is looking into reports that the birthday cakes that used to be given to the senior citizens during the past administration are actually overpriced.
In a recent ‘Ugnayan’ which filled the San Andres Sports Complex to the brim, Lacuna directly asked the senior citizens present to choose between birthday cake and cash gift, to which the response was unanimous in favor of cash gift.
Once the conversion of birthday cake to cash takes effect, Lacuna said it will complement the increased monthly senior citizens allowance which her administration doubled -from P500 to P1,000 a month- also through an ordinance which she signed last year.
Lacuna laments that the increase may have come earlier if the city is not saddled with a P17.8 billion debt left by her predecessor, Isko Moreno, out of which the city under her administration has already paid some P3.2 billion so far.
